The manufacturing and assembly process for vehicles requires workers to install various parts to the vehicle as the vehicle moves along an assembly line. The supply of these parts, or inventory, must be replenished during the assembly process, with some parts requiring replenishment more often than others. The frequency of replenishment can depend on the storage area allotted to the parts adjacent to the installation location along the assembly line, the size of the parts, the quantity of the parts used per vehicle, and how many vehicles traveling the assembly line require use of the specific parts.
Traditional part-replenishment systems can include delivery of inventory according to a detailed schedule or delivery of inventory upon specific request by workers on the assembly line. Parts can be delivered, for example, by forklift drivers or automated guided vehicles (AGVs) traveling between an inventory storage location and the various stations of the assembly line requiring the specified parts. Schedule-based delivery systems can be overly complicated to manage, and request-based delivery systems can cause delays along the assembly line. A better part-replenishment system for supplying inventory is thus required to improve the manufacturing and assembly process.